Ephraim Hardcastle
WITH doubt persisting over whether Camilla will eventually be Queen, there is one honour to copperfasten her position in the first rank of the Royal Family: as a member of the Council of State. Consisting of Philip and four senior royals, it is currently much reduced. With Philip retired, Andrew and harry furloughed and the Queen in isolation, the formidable workload falls to only two: Charles and William. Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and eugenie should be next in line but Charles, with an eye to future kingship, would prefer Camilla.
WAS the Queen consulted on Boris’s £900,000 paint makeover of the government jet? HM and senior royals still take precedence over use of the converted RAF Voyager A330, with Palace sources suggesting there was little dialogue on the new design. And while the monarch no longer has much need of an official plane, Prince Charles, who sees himself as a national arbiter of taste, would have liked to see a few colour charts at least.
WITh Tim Davie anointed as BBC director general, Boris has to decide who replaces David Clementi as chairman before January. Favourite is ITV chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette. Best known for bringing Big Brother to the UK, his return to the BBC would complete his circle. he started in the 1970s as a researcher for esther Rantzen’s That’s Life.
MARY Berry, pictured, confesses to playing the field with other suitors before marrying Paul Hunnings in 1966. ‘I had another boyfriend in Bath and Paul was in London. I used to go home at the weekend,’ she says. ‘Paul was the London one and I had a Bath one. Actually there were several in Bath. You keep your options open.’ Who’d have thought?
CRITIC Mark Lawson mourns Ian holm despite the actor repeatedly misquoting his review of his nude 1998 King Lear, claiming he’d written: ‘I fail to see how Mr holm could have possibly fathered three children with a member that size.’ Says Lawson: ‘no such line ever appeared. I quoted a member of the audience expressing surprise after the storm scene that Mr holm had had three wives.’
STUDIO guest Samuel Jackson was impressed with the backdrop of ITV’s This Morning, telling boss Martin Frizell: ‘I love your CGI. That screen is fantastic.’ Replied Frizell: ‘No, actually that’s the real Thames. That’s the river out there.’
PeTeR Mandelson’s cosy relationship with China’s Xi Jinping could be fatal to his ambition to be next boss of the World Trade Organisation. Mandy, president of the Great Britain China Centre and a staunch huawei supporter, is unlikely to get the crucial support of Donald Trump. One US administration source says: ‘From Washington, Lord Mandelson looks like a Chinese patsy. he’s toxic to Trump.’
DAME Maggie Smith isn’t losing any sleep over fears Covid-19 could jeopardise her appearing in the planned Downton Abbey movie sequel. Receiving a six-series DVD box set of the series, she remarked: ‘I won’t last long enough to see the wretched thing, will I?’